The present invention relates generally to household appliance installation devices and more particularly to a range-hood installation retention device which secures a range-hood in place while final installation is performed so as to facilitate installation for the owner.
Over the last several years, the use of range-hoods of the canopy type has increased in both houses and apartments to the extent that the range-hood is no longer seen as a frivolous luxury but rather as a necessary kitchen accessory.
With the expanded usage of the range-hood as a necessary kitchen appliance for the exhausting of smoke and vapor filled, air, or in the case of ductless range-hoods through which the air is refiltered and exhausted back into the cooking area, means have been sought for an installation device which would facilitate the attachment of such a range-hood against a wall or soffit which would not only be relatively easy to mount but would also retain the hood against the wall or soffit in a necessary position while the installer attaches the final installation mounting devices. In this type of situation the installer would not have to physically hold the range-hood in position or have others position and hold it for him while he inserts the necessary fastening devices, as the range-hood would be held for him by the preliminary retaining devices.
While many attachment devices have been developed over the past century to accommodate the installation and attachment of hanging fixtures, such as the range-hood, wall shelving or electrical lighting devices, few, if any, have addressed themselves to the preliminary securing and attachment of such fixtures so as to simplify matters for the installer attempting to obtain final completion by holding the fixture in place for him while he accomplishes final installation.
Examples of some of these fastening devices start with the most basic, through which securement is achieved by the use of screwing or bolting devices such as self-tapping masonary screws with over-sized or standard sized flat heads. Surely installation of a range-hood can be accomplished where the installer is using such types of fastening devices. However, for the installer to attach a range-hood or other type of fixture in this way he must himself, or with the assistance of another person, position the fixture, or as in this case a range-hood, in the proper place and maintain it in that place against a wall or onto the bottom of a soffit, while he attempts the delicate and often cumbersome task of mounting the screw-type fasteners through the mounting holes of the range-hood and into the wall or soffit itself. As one could see or know from experience, it is often quite difficult to hold a large and often weighty range-hood in place with one hand while setting and starting the necessary screw-type fastening devices with another hand and a screwdriver.
Besides the most basic types of contemporary fastening devices which offer the greatest degree of difficulty towards installation of the range-hood or household fixture, there are several other devices which though more easy to install, still offer a significant degree of difficulty in mounting since the installer must still retain the range-hood itself in position against a wall or soffit to use these devices. One example of this type of fastening device is what is more commonly referred to as the toggle bolt. The toggle bolt itself consists of a non-tapered machine screw which fits into a threaded appendage. The appendage that the machine screw fits into is held between two spring-loaded flanged members which meet at an angle. The construction of the toggle device allows installation of the device through an already drilled hole in a wall or soffit. The two angular facing flanged members constrict so as to fit through this pre-drilled hole and once through the hole, expand like an opening umbrella due to the spring tension force loaded upon them. Slightly pulling back on the toggle bolt usually entrenches the elements against the inside of the wall or soffit through which the toggle device has been inserted. At this time, the machine screw which extends from the inside of the wall or soffit, attached to the appendage on the umbrella-type restraining device, can be screwed in so as to restrain virtually any type of fixture between its head and the wall. But even with this type of device with which the hole can be drilled before actual installation and mounted to a wall or soffit, the installer must still maintain the range-hood in physical position while the toggle bolt is being inserted and must similarly keep it in this position by exerted force, while the machine screw portion of the toggle bolt is slowly and carefully turned towards final exertion of pressure from the head of the machine-screw against the sheet metal being installed, acting so as to sandwich the sheet metal of the installed fixture between the machine-screw head and the wall or soffit surface.
For the most part, similar devices to the toggle bolt require the same type of installation effort to keep the range-hood in place while the fastening screw is being positioned and turned. Some examples of equally difficult to work with, yet similar fastening devices for mounting fixtures onto a wall or soffit, exist with what is commonly called restraining anchors and expansion bolts. While such devices take on several shapes and forms they have in common, the insertion behind the wall or soffit, and by either hammering into an inserted anchor as in the case of masonary, or by inserting the bolt into the threaded portion of an expansion device and by continually rotating the bolt so as to contort the shape of the expanding sides resting behind the wall or soffit, eventual seating of such devices takes place.
Other numerous modes of installation are available to an installer, especially if he has substantial access to the woodwork behind a wall or soffit. This would allow an installer to utilize hanger bars which extend from one joist to another joist securely attaching each behind the surface of the wall or the surface of the soffit. Fastening devices along the length of the hanger bar protrude outwardly from the behind the wall towards and past the surface of the wall or soffit thus exposing themselves so as to allow fastening through the use of a wing nut or standard nut over the protruding threaded bolt extending from the wall or soffit. In order to effectively use such a mounting device a great deal of effort must be exerted simply to install the hanger bar itself but even more importantly, the range-hood must still be held in place by force and in position while the final bolting procedure is accomplished by attaching and turning the nut onto the protruding threaded rod, after the range-hood assembly itself had been slipped over and along the threaded rod.
Several other adequate means for general fastening exist, such as recessed installation boxes, dry wall framing devices, reverse positioned bolts with protruding portions extending out from the wall or soffit, as well as for that matter the actual affixing of the fixture by nail or bolt to a locatable stud or joist behind the wall or soffit surface onto which the range-hood is being installed. But while all these devices have been proven over the years as being successful attaching devices, few, if any, address themselves to the problem of maintaining the fixture, or range-hood, in place so as to allow the installer to have all hands free for insertion of the final retaining devices. With most of the contemporary attaching devices the installer must still use his hands, shoulder, or another person, to erect the range-hood to its required position and maintain it there while fumbling with the devices which will eventually maintain the range-hood's position on that wall or soffit.
It has become apparent that of the prior art examined, most attempts to improve installation or attachment devices has been through the modification of how a device sits into or behind a mounting surface. Little if any examination has been made into the area of facilitating the actual installer's effort by the development of a device which offers a preliminary restraint of the range-hood in a juxtaposed position to the mounting surface, allowing such an installer free use of both his hands and shoulders to affix the final mounting attachments towards completion of a finished, secure, and attractive mounting.
The present invention addresses itself to the area of installation for a range-hood assembly. It is the object of the present invention to allow preliminary attachment in a juxtaposed manner to the surface means, whether it be a wall or a soffit, through the use of two snap-in bracketing devices. These bracketing devices are secured by conventional screwing means onto the surface of the wall or soffit and are so spaced apart as to align with receiving slots on the upper rear portion of the range-hood when it is mounted on the wall, and the rear top portion of the range-hood when it is mounted to a soffit so as to suspend down from such a soffit.
The outside edges of the mounting bracket serve also as an identifying locater for where the outside corners of the range-hood will finally be installed. Towards this purpose, it is further an object of the present invention to allow the installer to set up the snap-in mounting brackets on the wall or soffit within the constraints of the dimensions of the range-hood itself, thus requiring the installer to space the outside edges of the snap-in brackets apart from one another to equal the horizontal length of the particular model range-hood he has purchased. Once these brackets have been installed the installer need only align the entire range-hood assembly's slots with the mounted brackets and push this range-hood assembly onto the brackets until both have snapped in place.
At the time when both brackets have snapped into either the top portion or the rear portion of the range-hood to be installed, depending as to whether the hood will be installed on a wall or soffit, the installer is now free to use both his hands and any other parts of his body to locate, start, and finally fasten two final mounting screws which sandwich in the hood assembly between the wall or soffit, and the bottom of the head of these final mounting screws, and which complete the mounting of the range-hood assembly.
It is therefore the over-all object of the present installation device to allow successful, secure, and attractive installation of a manufacturer's range-hood, with little effort and in minutes from the time the range-hood is un-packaged to the time it is ready for functional use over a cooking area.